


Last Wish

by izazov



Category: Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Brotherly Angst, Brotherly Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 10:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1742276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izazov/pseuds/izazov
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you could have one wish granted, before the world ends, what would it be?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Wish

Thor's gaze rests on the darkened splendor of his home with a sort of weary detachment. Asgard still stands, tonight. Tomorrow? Not even Norns could tell him the answer to that. No matter how high the price Thor would be willing to pay.

“Admiring the view?”

Thor could claim he had not expected to hear that voice. He could also claim it does not touch that small place inside his heart years, disappointments and loss have yet to harden. Thor would be lying.

“You should not have come, Loki,” Thor says evenly, without turning around. He keeps his back exposed, grimly recalling that once he had been at his safest with Loki at his back. But that time has long since gone. Nothing but a memory now, so distant it sometimes seems like an echo of a dream. “You are not welcome here.”

Loki chuckles as he appears next to Thor, his steps silent as always. “If I only went to places that would welcome me, I would never leave Helheim.”

“And whose fault is that?” Thor asks, allowing his eyes to drift to Loki’s face. Sharper, gaunter, _older_. Still Loki, though. And how many times, in his darkest moments of despair, had Thor cursed the fates for allowing the monster who had robbed him most of his family, to look at him with the face of his brother.

Loki chuckles again, but it nowhere near reaches his eyes. “Why not try asking for something simpler, Thunderer? The answer to that particular question demands time neither of us have.”

“Why are you here?” Thor decides after a moment of consideration.

“I must say, I am surprised,” Loki says, his tone light. His eyes are lucid now, but Thor can almost feel the flickers of flames burning deeper. Flames which have set fire to the Nine Realms. “I have expected for you to reach after Mjölnir by now. You have changed.”

“There is still time for that,” it is a statement, not a warning, but as Thor somehow knows Loki will not stab him in the back, Loki knows he is safe from Mjölnir’s fury. “And you have yet to answer my question.”

Loki’s face grows serious, almost thoughtful, “Asgard will burn,” he says softly, and Thor still has it in in him to feel the red flashes of fury, even if they come few and far between.

“Not while I still live,” Thor says fiercely. This too, not a warning, but a promise.

Corner of Loki’s lips twitches, forming a mirthless smile. “I am certain you will try, Thor,” he says, and there is no trace of malice of gloating in his voice. If Thor believed Loki capable, he would almost call it sorrow. “You will fail.”

Thor turns, now facing Loki fully. There is but a step of empty space between them, but Thor can see through the illusion clearly this time. A chasm is what divides them. Endless space filled with resentment, bitterness and betrayal.

“By your hand?” Thor asks, allowing himself a small, wistful smile. It takes him more effort than it should not to add the word brother at the end of that question.

“If it comes to that,” Loki says evenly with a shrug of his shoulder.

“So it has finally come to that, your death or mine?”

“Maybe we will both die tomorrow, nothing is certain,” Loki states, a small frown marring his features, almost as if he is contemplating statistical probability of the most likely outcome. “Except the fate of Asgard. It will end in fire.”

Thor would prefer anger, but it is sorrow, the kind that suffocates all life and hope, that rises in the pit of his stomach as an answer to that. “Is your hatred so grand that nothing but total annihilation will sate it?”

Something like anger, or hurt, sparks to life in Loki’s eyes. “It is out of my hands. Even if I wanted to, I could do nothing to stop it.”

“Stop lying, Loki. I have changed, as you stated. Even if I had not, that is one lie even I would have never been foolish enough to believe” Thor breathes out through clenched teeth, frustrated to the point of madness with how helpless he is. He rises his hands, for a second undecided what to actually do with them. He knows what he should do, just as he knows all too well what is it that he wants to do. In the end, he settles for gripping Loki’s shoulders tight, shaking him like a petulant child. “Just. _Stop_.”

Loki makes no move to free himself from Thor’s grasp, or do anything at all. He merely allows Thor to let out all his frustration, staring at Thor with an unreadable face. After a moment, Thor lets out a frustrated growl, releasing Loki. It is futile anyway. Has been for quite some time.

Turning his back on Loki, Thor strides to the balcony, his lungs struggling to draw breath. Something starts to unwind in his chest, a wound that has never really healed, filling his insides with poison that burns. For a fleeting moment, Thor wonders is this how Loki feels constantly – caught in the never-ending fire of his madness, burning all to ash, until there is nothing of him left.

By the time Loki speaks again, Thor has calmed to the point it no longer feels like his chest will crack under the strain of trying to draw breath. “You are right. I did lie.”

Laughter that comes out of Thor’s mouth is a sharp, ugly sound. Even to him. “When do you not? Can your lips even form truth anymore?”

“I would hardly be an accomplished liar if I never spoke the truth,” Loki’s voice comes from behind him. Against his will, Thor turns. Loki is leaning against the door leading to the balcony, his head inclined to the side, as he studies Thor as if he is trying to memorize the sight of him.

“And what did you lie about this time?” Thor asks, despite himself. But a part of him – small and foolish – wants to prolong this moment. He bears no false hope of reconciliation, or even understanding. And if pointless banter is the last thing he will get from Loki, then so be it. Dawn is drawing closer with each second, and Thor can feel every single one slowly, but surely ticking away.

“There is one more certainty,” Loki says, his lips trying, but failing, to form a smile. “This will be our last meeting.”

Thor’s eyes squeeze shut for a mere second. The force of the blow is in no way lessened by the fact it is something Thor has known for a while now. Valhalla for one, Hel for the other, there is no bridge death could build for the two of them. When he opens his eyes again, Loki is standing a mere step away.

“Why are you here?” Thor asks, for the third time. There are tears in his eyes, and it’s a miracle on its own. He’s long since forgotten how to cry.

“If you could have one wish granted, before the world ends, what would it be?”

Thor releases a sound that is half between a laugh and a sob. “Are you granting wishes now, Trickster?”

Loki smiles, and through the haze of tears filling his eyes, Thor can almost recognize it as one of Loki’s smiles from before the fall. “I’m willing to grant _you_ one. For old times’ sake.”

Thor doesn’t have to even think about what to say. There is only one thing he truly desires.

“Then give me my little brother back,” he says solemnly, tears falling freely down his cheeks. “Even if for this night only.” 

And when Thor spreads his arms, Loki steps into his embrace without a second thought.


End file.
